Scenario: New Agent, No Rules
A team ships a new agent on Friday. It can spend. Nobody set a budget. The weekend passes; the bill arrives.
What happens without rules
The agent buys tools and data freely. Nothing screens the transactions; the first review is the invoice.
What happens with defaults
Default rules apply to any new agent: a per-transaction cap, an allowlist of common vendors, and an approval threshold.
The agent works — but every material purchase waits for a human until its own rules exist.
The rule set
Default policy: per_transaction_cap $200 + merchant allowlist (common vendors) + approval threshold $500.
The onboarding gate
Ship gate: every agent key gets default rules at creation.
Owner adds agent-specific rules within the first week.Defaults cover the gap between deploy and governance.
FAQ
Do default rules slow new agents?
Slightly — until the team tunes them. That's the trade for not having an ungoverned weekend.
Who sets defaults?
The platform or finance owner — see the onboarding brief template.
Related
Stop the next $12,400 night.
One API call (or MCP tool) in front of every agent transaction — APPROVED, BLOCKED, or FLAGGED, deterministic, ~5 ms, fully logged.
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